"Vendepatrias"

Francisco Chaviano is one of the 74 who signed the letter supporting an end to U.S. travel restrictions. (Uncommon Sense wrote about him here when he was released from jail in 2007.) For signing that letter, he and the others were attacked and their intentions questioned. Chaviano responds here to Zoe Valdes, who questioned whether the 74 are really dissidents, and called them sellouts (“vendepatrias”) and worse.

Meanwhile, blogger Reinaldo Escobar looks at the issue a little more philosophically: “The sharpest internal contradictions come about when foreign interests appear.” Absolute unity among opponents of the Cuban government may be a bridge too far, he argues, and perhaps should be sacrificed in the interest of progress on the issues on which all agree.

And Carlos Saladrigas surveys the reaction to the letter in a Miami Herald op-ed and concludes, hopefully, that Cuban dissidents may get more respect now than before.